Wow or WOAH factor?
Andy examines quantity versus quality, and asks why your garage might make customers say “WOAH when you want them to say “WOW!”
By Andy Savva |
Published: 22 September, 2020
Do you work in a quality business? Or a quantity business? Is it possible to have a garage business that has both? How do we define quality for that matter? You see everyone’s perception of quality is different, which makes it difficult to work towards a particular grade of quality.
If you examine the excellence and quality movements in detail as I have in the last 15 years or so, you will see that what the really offer is to turn back the clock, applying the standards of bygone days to today’s profit-based material age. The premise is that if you get back to product or service supremacy through quality you cannot fail. Sadly, it is an entirely false premise.
Customer satisfaction is no longer enough. Satisfied customers are not loyal customers. They shop around – they may like you, but not enough to resist the temptations of your competitors. Truly loyal customers can’t imagine doing business with anyone else. They become advocates for your garage.
Companies who have such customers have managed to create a customer experience that is consistent, intentional, differentiated, and valuable. To do this they use all aspects of the business, marketing, operations, and the most important factor the human element.
Superior service
You could have a quality product or service but if not matched with a superior WOW factor service experience you have no hope in succeeding. Let me give you an example, Curry’s sell quality products, yet the service in most cases and what I have experienced is really lacking. These stores are huge, selling hundreds of lines yet hardly anyone works in them, and if you do find someone to assist you they have very little product knowledge.
Now, take off your business hat and ask yourself, as a consumer, how many genuine quality businesses do you know? If you can think of one, perhaps even two or three, where you are constantly and consistently super-impressed, not just with what they do but how they do it, you are doing well. You have seen the WOW factor at work. You may even have glimpsed a miracle. My guess is that you will be thinking of a business that puts its relationship-building substantially in front of making the next sale.
These are the kind of businesses that share one of my philosophies about customers: that it’s far better to concentrate on what you do for customers than what you do to customers. Despite all the new technology, and the mind-blowing rise of call centres which in my view do very little in increasing the customer experience and other magic customer service-enhancing devices, companies still frequently fail their customers.
The reason is not so often that the computer system has gone down, although that happens frequently enough!) it is mostly because the culture, philosophy and ideals do not exist. When this happens, it’s a people issue.
People power
For those involved in selling, and that’s what we do in our garage businesses, this is a mammoth task. Selling has, it seems, been quantity-driven since time began; but, in the last 20 years, it has become quantity-obsessed. This obsession has, in my view, led to practices and standards in our garage sector that can barely be justified. There is no mitigation. We are all to blame. We have all seen the £99 service, MOT, three-course meal and the kitchen sink deal. Someone please explain to me how anyone can charge so little and offer a quality WOW Factor experience?
Given the choice – and they will be – no customer in their right mind would want to deal with a person driven by quantity objectives. Customers already know that, so often, quantity objectives work against quality objectives. Look at the classic high-commission businesses and the reputation they have: double-glazing or perhaps even office equipment. There are many more, including, sadly in our garage sector.
What next?
Find where you and your business are, and remember it well. If you do nothing to give your customers the WOW Factor, the future has some difficult and frightening times ahead, times of uncertainty and high risk.
Far be it for me to put the fear of God into you about the future, but that’s exactly what I think might need to happen. I, and many others before me, have pointed to change being the cause of this fear. Not just change itself, but its rate and frequency and scope. In such circumstances you must look to make yourself and your business stronger, more resilient. I have two suggestions for this.
The first lies in your business process, I witness so many garages lack of processes that do not consider the customer journey and the impact it has on them.
The second lies in the quality objectives you need to create that are understood and breathed by everyone in your business. For one aspect of the quantity/quality discussion we have not considered is this; quantity only builds immediate sales; quality builds friends. Friends, in the long term, build greater quantity, which yields the miracles that create the WOW factor.
Lastly, just before I end this article, Id like to point something out. It may seem obvious, but don’t look for a switch. There isn’t one. You can’t turn a miracle on. There is nothing anyone can flick to change your environment from quantity driven to customer driven. It is truly a pendulum. The only thing you need to know about this pendulum is that its relentless: It was for me running my last garage business it was actually unstoppable.
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- Shifting demands, shifting gears
Garages that thought they would be veering away from MOTs in favour of essential repairs during the Coronavirus lockdown are still doing MOT tests at roughly the same rate, it has been suggested.
While DVSA figures showed a 78% drop in MOT performed between 30 March and 24 April, marketing agency Digital Incubator says the independent garages it works with that remained open during the lockdown have not seen such a steep drop.
“We have a lot of garage clients that have switched from MOT campaigns to clutch and gearbox work,” explained Jamie Stoulger, Sales Director and Operations Manager at Digital Incubator. “However, our clients are still generating a steady flow of MOT enquires.”
Campaigns
The marketing agency works with garages across the UK, and currently has over 1,200 motor trade campaigns ongoing. 80% of customers are in the independent sphere.
Jamie continued: “Regardless of the MOT not being relevant, people are still getting their cars picked up. A lot of our clients run a collect and delivery service. We are running that via the ad campaigns and on the website.”
There has been an impact, Jamie confirmed, but a mild one at best, and work overall continues: “MOTs have slowed down slightly, that just what it is, but regardless of us being in the middle of this pandemic, if someone still has to go into work and their car breaks down, they still need to get it repaired. They are not going to just leave it on the side of the road and deal with it six months later. You need it done. As a result, our clients are still generating leads.”
Performance
We asked Jamie he thought this has taken many of their garage clients by surprise. “I wouldn’t say so,” he replied. “There are a lot of franchised dealerships and service centres that have just closed their doors without even thinking about it. They just went ‘we can get funding, let’s just put everyone on furlough’. The garage businesses that decided to pummel through this, they are still performing. There might be a small dip in some cases, but across the board, our averages have not really dropped. I don’t want to make a bold statement and say it isn’t affecting anyone – it is – but they are on average not far behind where they usually are. It has hit them, but we are not talking about 50%. The drops in business are probably around 10% to 15%.”
Situation
On what has been in many cases blanket closure by across much of the franchised network, Jamie observed: “I worry about the outlets that are closing their doors without making the slightest attempt at generating business. It’s still out there. People forget that. Across the board, if you think about it logically, there might only be 50% of the business available, but if 80% of the outlets are closing down, the garages staying open will benefit. I think a lot of businesses are going to come back to a very big decline in their own customer base. Their customers have had chance to test another garage out. If they had a better service, I know where they will go the second time around.
“I think some businesses have taken things a little too far. There are things you can put in place, like contactless pick-up and delivery. Dealerships could have put in place what the independents have done to keep their workers safe and the customers safe. If you can, do everything contactless. A lot of companies are going to go bust because of this. The best bet is to do things safely, ensure it is all contactless, but keep the doors open. The business is out there, they just need to be a bit more open about how to get it.”
- How’s the health of your business?
In my line of work I meet a lot of great garage owners. Dedicated men and women, all committed to repairing their clients’ vehicles to a high standard. They’re intelligent, hard working and persistent people many of which have been in business a good few years.
With all of this in their favour you would imagine that they would be spending their free time pondering the length of their next yacht, or whether they should winter in the Alps or Rockies? Unfortunately this is often not the case, and it’s not uncommon to be asked “How can I increase the financial success of my business?”
We all know that an unfeasibly large income doesn’t buy you happiness, far from it. But I do know this. A healthy business is a profitable business, and a profitable business not only buys you less stress, it buys you choices and options on how you spend your days. Would you like more options? If so read on.
Back to that question. “How can my business be more financially successful?”
‘More’ is a dangerous word and it’s often not attained. A better question would be “What is the maximum revenue, profit and personal income that my business can generate in its current form?”
It is something that a lot of business owners haven’t contemplated. But you really should. Only when you know this, can you decide if your current business is performing at it’s best, and is the vehicle to get you to where you need be financially.
The good news is you don’t need to be an accountant to calculate your maximum net labour revenue. Just using the available hours to sell your labour rate and the number of technicians your employ will get you a long way in the right direction. Take an average hourly rate of £55. It could probably be higher but we’ll come to that in due course. This will yield a maximum net income of £422,000 a year from labour sales with four technicians. If your garage is reaching that level of income (£105,000 per tech) at that labour rate, then you should give yourself a rather large pat on the back. Nice one! Not reaching that? That’s incredibly common. In fact if your garage has a net labour revenue of around 54% of your maximum, then you’ll not be alone as that’s the average for a business when we start to work with them on our business development programme.
Why so low? Why are business owners leaving £50,000 per technician on the table? There are a plethora of reasons but I find the most common answer is one of focus. They’re just focusing on the wrong things.
It’s natural. In fact it’s perfectly understandable why a garage owner focuses on the technical aspect of their business. You know that if you don’t fix the cars in a timely manner to a high standard that your income will suffer and your customers won’t return. So of course you’re interested in technical tools and the latest workshop wizardry that’ll enable you to complete a job that you couldn’t without it, or the same job in less time. But let’s be honest (we’re friends after all) is this laser-like focus healthy? Are you too focused on the next tool, the next gadget, the next BIG THING to the cost of your business? All too often I find that a garage owner is and it’s costing you.
If you’re not measuring it…
All that is required is a change of focus. The success of your business is in the data, and if you would like to claw back that £50k per technician (or at least a large chunk of it) then learning how to measure the right data and use it to your advantage is essential. After all: If you’re not measuring it, you can’t improve it.
So, you want to increase your income and profit, what should you be measuring? Here are a couple of metrics to get you started.
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- Bigger is better – right?
I was asked whether expanding a garage business to become multi-site was practical or, indeed, even feasible, which got me thinking.
Fundamentally, a business exists to create wealth, both as cash and as an asset. This then benefits the owner(s) and employees, or any shareholders.
The basic principles of the business are to provide goods and services to meet the needs of their customers, who pay accordingly. The turnover/cash flow generated then pays for the costs of providing those goods and services (employees, suppliers etc), leaving any surplus as profit, on which tax may be due. Therefore, in a logical process, the greater the turnover and the lower the costs, the greater the profit – simple!
So, if a business is working well, surely if you just keep replicating what it does in other locations to other customers then you would just keep generating greater profits? Here comes the ‘but’. This concept applies but only in certain circumstances.
Personal touch
If we look at a successful independent garage, it is often the enthusiasm, commitment and business acumen of the owner which creates the success, frequently based on good customer service at a personal level. The ‘brand value’ of the business is quite literally in the hands of the owner. It is therefore challenging to successfully replicate this if another branch is opened as this ‘personal touch’ is then split between two locations. If three locations exist, this becomes even more thinly spread and increasingly reliant on the quality and commitment of other staff to deliver the original brand values.
Therefore, a self-imposed ‘glass ceiling’ is created. It is felt that the maximum number of locations that can be successfully emulated is three. However, if you do plan to expand, how do you know when this should happen and what are the key issues to consider to enable you to create successful clones of your business?
The most important point is to identify the key benefit of your business that has created the foundation of your success – your Unique Selling Point (USP). Once you have identified this, it is then imperative that you understand how this can be replicated. It will be important that you can ‘stand out from the crowd’ as any new site will have to establish itself quickly from a standing start. Remember that marketing is not about winning the war to be the best product or service but about winning the hearts and minds of your customers. Additionally, do not be too cautious about setting your prices higher as most customers do not buy on price and carefully selecting your target audience should support your pricing level. Aim to be the leader rather than just another player in the marketplace.
So having identified what your new location will emulate, the next critical step is to understand the automated and integrated systems that need to be in place to allow your businesses to be effectively monitored and managed. This becomes increasingly important as any new site is created as your management time will become increasingly shared. You will not be able to rely on manual systems and the various elements of data will need to become ever more integrated. For example, wages, invoicing, workshop revenue, parts purchases and so on, need to be coordinated, otherwise, quite literally, your numbers will not add up. Any system that you do implement must also be scalable and have multi-user access, otherwise you will lose the support of your managers and staff at this critical time of an expanding business.
It will not be possible to retain your original ‘hands on’ management style and this will mean that you will lose visibility of the business as well as having to implement new legislative and policy requirements for new staff and premises.
From the purely financial perspective, new businesses rarely fail because of a lack of profitability but fail due to a lack of cash. Any new location will be a cash consumer until it becomes established, so this will require adequate funding and a clear visibility of cash flow from both your existing business as well as the new location as this starts to grow. The key financial elements should include:
• Direct visibility of the daily results
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and management information
• Actual results versus budgets or forecasts
• Profitability
• Customer debts
• Supplier payments (due dates and values)
The better you can demonstrate the financial visibility, control of the business and achievement of your business plan, the easier it will be, both for yourself and when working with your bank.
A strong team
This then leads onto perhaps the most difficult element of growing any business – good quality managers and staff. This creates two immediate problems – firstly, who to delegate your existing business to and secondly, who to appoint to run your new business. In both cases, not only must this individual, or individuals (it could be that you appoint a single deputy and share the tasks) be professionally competent but they must also share your company ethos to ensure that what made your company successful in the first place can continue to be delivered.
Finally, if what you have is truly transferrable then ask yourself if it could be franchised.
My personal opinion is that this is unlikely unless your USP is based on a specialist niche part of the market. If this is the case, although this may create an opportunity, by definition, niche market sectors offer limited potential. You will also have to ask yourself if a potential franchisee couldn’t just do this for themselves without (quite literally) buying in to your franchise offer?
So, if you are considering expansion into other sites, ensure you have the right systems in place, that your existing business USP can be successfully emulated, have competent managers who share you ethos and then it is just a case of finding the right location(s) – which is another different challenge altogether!
